 I Frank, afternoon. Just before we talk, Everton, I wonder whether I could get any reaction from you regarding the dismissal of Stephen General to Aston Villa. Yeah, obviously I know Stevie, get on well with him and a huge amount of respect for him as a player, as a person, as a manager, a coach. So, that's the first thing, and I think it's not nice for someone to lose their job, and when it's in the public eye, I know that from my experience that it's also going to be difficult in many ways, but it's a very tough lad, a good family around him and all those things. I won't comment much more because I think it's, having been in that situation, I know that there are always a lot of things beneath that, you know, situations that it's worked with or whatever and he'll have his views on that. But yeah, he's a great, great football person, that's all I've got to say really. But it is less than 12 months, which it does seem harsh in the footballing world at the Premier League I suppose? Well this is the thing, and I think we all understand the jeopardy of the job we work in and there are a lot of pluses to it, huge pluses, we've been proud to represent the clubs we work for, but as a coach in the modern day you need time to work, circumstances to work. You've all got responsibilities, you've got to try and get results, and sometimes time isn't afforded in the modern day, and I think when you're working at that level, I think you see really good examples in the modern day of when you give coaches time to go through the patches to try and get growth, to try and get to where you want it. There's always something in the road that catches you in moments and periods, and you have to give people time to do that. We've got great examples in the Premier League, the coaches top of the Premier League, rightly lauded as an amazing coach. There have been many a time where people were questioning whether he should be in his job and could lose his job, other coaches that have been promoted or not promoted and promoted or stand the league and struggle, and people then start to appreciate the work they do over time. So, you know, as a general thing I think that would be what I would look at, you know, and that's fortunately become a part of the modern game. Well, let's talk Everton. You started the month so well with that away win at Southampton, but after three successive defeats has the mood changed around the club at all? Well, defeats always changed things, but it's football, so you'd be naive to think that you'd go for a season in our position without periods like this. Clearly a tough run of games on paper of teams that were ahead of us in where they're at and recruiting constantly and adding to their squads, all three of our last games, two away from home. So, where we're at has probably shown us a reality of where we're at generally, and then in-house a reality of things that we can probably do a bit better in those games. I thought we approached all of those games in a good way to an extent, and then for different reasons in all those games we didn't come up and maybe that is the difference in the gap that we have to work to and aspire to. And back to maybe my previous answer, I understand that things take time, and there will always be a moment when people may be questioning a few things after defeats and you go, okay, that's fine, because sometimes that is good for us to sort of go, where can we be better? And now the coming games are a good opportunity for us to show that. Well, I suppose something that is being questioned is the lack of creativity, no shots on target in the last couple of games. I know Colin Coley said after the game on Wednesday you need to be a bit more ruthless, but how do you go about that? Is that a time factor again? I think in phases of the season you can have these moments. No shots on target against Tottenham was two really good chances that one on target probably should be goals, so I don't think it's as clear as day, but I think again there's a realism about it. We've got Dominic back in our team. I haven't really had Dominic much and we saw the impact in the tiny period that we did have him at the end of last season. Nils come into the team and signed in the season now. And then when we look across the team we go, we've not got a history of scoring a lot of goals. We lost our lead goal scorer last year in the summer. I said there's a process of trying to work towards that. Summer that is team structure, that's my responsibility to try and get that right, and individually within that we have to welcome making people more prolific and scoring goals. And again you want to fix things within the team. The first thing we wanted to look at was the solid nature of the team this season. We certainly have improved that. There's no doubt from looking at our performances. And then the next phase of that is can we continue with that but also of course add goals and hopefully the personnel and having Dominic back will add a lot to that. He needs the service of course which maybe is an area to work on. And also can he start successive league games? I know you said you were easing it back. Is he ready to play again from the off? You will see. I won't comment on that one but in terms of service, yeah, that's the team and collective. And in our last home games I think are great examples for us of West Ham where we were crossing and creating opportunities and really playing deep into West Ham's half and creating a lot. And in the second half at Manchester United at home we're creating a lot of chances which our crowd want to see. We have to be a team that makes crosses and makes chances that stays in the opposition half. And where we're coming together, getting those things all together, week in week out against the opposition. Going to Tottenham, going to Newcastle was not easy. So I'm not too concerned with what the last few games have looked like. I want improvement in our own way. Tomorrow is a completely different animal against a very good team but back at Goodison so we have opportunity to answer some of those questions. I was going to talk about that. Obviously a waveform is something that you want to address but are you again this season thinking that results at Goodison are going to be pivotal? When are they not? I think no disrespect your question but it's a statement of the obvious. But we can't come away from the fact that Goodison is special and when you think of the atmosphere that we can create when players come out and play with passion and the fans relate to that, it's a big deal for us so we have to use that as one of our weapons. We saw how special it was against Crystal Palace last season. Do we need to replicate that sort of atmosphere of Goodison again? That's not easy to replicate. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime evening to me. One of the best nights of my life and I feel fortunate enough to be a part of it and now it's making sure that we build on that and try and improve. So the fact that we're playing Palace, small reference back to that day because it was them, I'm sure they want to put some things right from that night as well. But other than that I'm more on the side of where can we keep building to understand the importance of that Palace and what it meant but why we were there and why we were in that kind of situation. So again that's why we have to look very much to the future and how we can be more stable going forward and that's what we're trying to do. I know you've got new players still betting in Frank but the side's been fairly constant hasn't it over the past few weeks but after three successive defeats do you consider changes and shake things up a bit or change in formations? Possibly, those are things that for me is my job to do and there are a couple of things to that. Firstly you want to find a consistency in selection if you can. It's the thing that's thrown at managers a lot. It doesn't know his best team but some managers change all the time and they're obviously very smart to do so. There are different situations. The real basics are that the players that are playing on the pitch need to perform and the players that are training and knocking on the door need to perform and then training and showing training or if they come onto the pitch that they deserve to be in the team. Once you have that then it gives you options to change. Only four matches in the league now before the break for the World Cup. I know you want points on the board as quickly as possible but is there a target amount of points in your mind before then? No, we just want to approach them. It feels like state in the obvious again but we have to do it. As I say we've been through a hard runner games. It's nice to be back at Goodison. We've had tough games at Goodison this year when you think that we've had Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United come in the five games that we've played at Goodison. So it's important for us that we just look at ourselves, believe in ourselves, work on the things that make us the team that we feel like we're becoming and continue to repeat them. That's what I want to see tomorrow. You mean it? Any closer to return? He's not back yet, no. Any progress on Nathan Passen? Yeah, he's progressing his training with us and will be fit hopefully for next week. How's Ben Coffrey? He'll be training with us hopefully next week on the pitch. Early stages but back which is great. Thanks very much. Frank, if I can take you back to that big night at the end of last season. Obviously the headline was to come back and survival for Everton. But take us through your emotions and recollections of that evening and the way it ended and flowed. Yeah, it's an incredible night because of the nature of how it flowed. The first half, a lot of problems, gave away bad goals. In that half time it was obviously looking at a really difficult situation and the nature and the magic of Goodison came through. Players take a lot of responsibility for that. They were amazing in turning it round. It was a difficult situation. The crowd brought into it and we created a spectacular night because of what was at stake. The fans brought into that were on the pitch and you saw what this club means. It's not just about the eleven players plus subs that run out on the pitch. It's the people that work here, people behind the scenes, people that were born Evertonians, people that support this club and love the place. That's one of the biggest honours for me when I came here was to understand that at close hand. So it felt like we achieved something in that night even though the outside people would just say you saved off relegation. So it was amazing on that fact and as I say now it's important that we have that as a nice night in the back of our heads. But think about how we can move forward. In a snapshot, did that really epitomise to you the potential that lies within this club if it can be tapped into it? Possibly, but there's a lot to it. That was a 45 minutes of special football but when you get back to the grind, potential is more about how much work you've got to do. Those nights are special for a reason but they're not the special that we want. We want to have special nights for different reasons, more positive in terms of where we are, things that we're fighting for. So the reality is that the potential is there because we know when we can engage the fans and give them what they want that we're going to have an incredible following and we have that already. The rest is our responsibility to try and work towards that. So the things that we really want still feel a way off but that's good, have a vision. Think about the game tomorrow but also think about where we can take it into the new stadium and where we really want to get to. I spoke about Dominic Calvert-Lewin, how much you've missed him obviously, had an impact on that occasion. He started a game for the first time in a good while on Wednesday night. What does he bring to this team and do you notice an immediate difference in the way the team plays when he's on the field? Well he brings a lot to the team and that's the reality of what it is. Dominic is a higher level striker, England striker, Premier League, regular goal scorer with all these natural attributes that we see in terms of types of goals that he can score. He's strengths, he's speed, he's aerial ability. So you have to try and play to the best strengths of that without a doubt and I think also Dominic is a forward that can connect the game and hold the ball and then drop in between lines at times as well. So there's a lot to his game and that's why we can't take lightly in terms of how much you've missed him because we're not in a position to replace that with another £50m striker. We're trying to work in a different way and you want Dominic as a focal point in your team and then the competition between him and Neil if it's one striker or playing off each other become options you can work on in training and all these things. We haven't had that so it's been a big hole for us and the sooner we can work on all those things more regularly if Dominic can stay fit. Better for Dominic but much better for the team as well. How difficult then is it for you as manager when you select the team because you know how much he wants to play every game just to, as you say, take it easy because it's a road now to making sure he is fit long term and not be tempted just to throw him straight back. I think that's if you're just saying that you just see the game every week or every three days we have a lot of work in between that. You manage him, you train at a certain level, full level, come off him. So there are a lot of things we can do to manage whether Dominic can start or come into games and get the best out of him and again I don't want to leave Neil out of the equation and Salomon and options that we have that we can play two together and one off of one so there are different things. But with Dominic yeah it's more of a day to day care thing especially with where we're at right now and have a good communication with him and then hopefully we can get some consistency in him being that he's absolute best for us. Yn old Crystal Palace when people look at them they often talk about the threat of Wilfridt but I imagine when you see them play on set you see a lot more than just one player. Yeah of course they've got a lot of threats in their team and attacking areas is very visible when you watch them play. They can make something out of nothing, they're very good in transition. They can also build and these players 1v1 give you a lot of problems so we felt that in the first half and the game at the end of the season when we gave them space and time. So the obvious thing is to concentrate on ourselves and restrict their real threats in the top area of the pitch to not getting the space that they want. Thank you. Thank you. There's four points separate eight places from palace down to walls. Is there anything unusual in that? Do you sense that the Premier League is a lot tighter so far this season? Well yeah that points to it doesn't it that there's such a tight a difference in positions you know you can win a couple of games and look up with schools in the top half we did that. There's a couple and you start looking downwards. I think it's important not to get too caught up in that. Understand that a lot of clubs around us for instance or clubs get promoted now invest heavily. Probably more so than they would have done in previous years with the attempt to start in the Premier League. Clubs that have been in and around it in the Premier League want to invest heavily and can do. So there's the face of the Premier League has probably changed and that makes it as competitive as ever and makes it difficult. That's what it is. Just on talking about Dominic Calvert-Lewin. If it's Dominic versus say Neil in the team, how does that change the way the team sets up and in line with what you were saying about the team developing? Do the team almost have to learn to play with either player? Yes or no. I think it depends on what phase of the game you're talking about. I think the most visible thing with Dominic is his area of ability at times and how much he can be a reference point if you want to play into him and more direct. But Neil is very good at coming between lines as well and receiving the ball. So there are different things but that can be small changes to a similar idea. So I'm not concerned about that. If we're playing one or the other the team will know what kind of movements we want and what kind of service we want to give. My gut feeling is with the team that the more we can be better with our possession in terms of how much territory up the pitch we can have and we're getting balls into the box then both strikers will be happy in their own way and that's something that we need to work on particularly at Goodison when we have the feeling of the crowd behind us so we can use them both their strengths equally. Just on Patrick Vieira, you've played under him at New York. How has he evolved since then as a manager? I don't know. I've been doing this job myself for a few years now and we evolve. Any good manager evolves, you learn, you take in information and I think the best ex-players that become managers and let's get it right a lot of ex-players become great managers. Look at Pep Guardiola, look at Carlo Angiolazzi, look at Zinedine Zidane and it's because they understand that when you're going to manager you have to evolve and take in a lot of things and I'm sure Patrick has been doing that and now he's a very, very good manager in the Premier League and I'm not surprised. Thanks James. Just to check, there's no adverse reaction to Dom on Wednesday in terms of his response when he came through okay. How pleased was that for him to be able to, I think it was about 70 odd minutes, was it for him to come through that and have no reaction? You're really pleasing for everybody for him firstly and then for me and for us because he's had a difficult period so I think it's mentally as well as physically that can be a great thing for him and I think it's normal that sharpness for a number nine particularly is the one thing you crave having been out so we can't expect everything in those terms from what I saw of his performance against Newcastle I think he's going to get there relatively quickly. Isn't quite keen to make an impression with that early book in Hosell, didn't he? He's also got eager to get back from the pitch but I'm just wondering a couple of seasons ago when he was playing under Andrew Roddy he had a lot of success when he was like from number ten so he had his rodrigues here at the time. Have you ever thought about adjusting the formation so that there is someone a bit closer to him to improve that supply line? Yeah, for sure. Whether it's an adjusting formation, Hermès was a very particular type of player which type of player in honesty we don't have now and that's just that so it's either finding other ways to connect the team where Dominic is not isolated and how he plays and that's important for us with our midfield play and making sure that we play between lines well enough and I think there have been instances this season when we've done that very well once the team's settled and we've managed to get the players in. There is and we'll be more instances where we can get even better because we're putting it together a little bit but yeah for sure we need players in and around Dominic no matter what you say whether you're hitting him slightly more directly or if you're building around him because it's no use him being a reference point on his own. We have to get players in and around him and that's part of the team structure and also the players decisions on pitch. I just wanted to ask an image about sort of Stephen Jared there but talking about sort of the precariousness of being a manager as well a lot of fans will sort of say he's okay and get a big pay out from that and obviously you've been in a situation where you've left a big club as well. Is it about that or is that sort of a red herring in the sense that it's more about the pride and the fact that you don't get a chance to sort of do your work to the extent you'd like to? For my experience to pay out is regardless everyone's different and I don't think that comes into the should come into the general conversation about it. I think when you're looking at people in a job that their life is consumed by their job and I think if you have to do this job well there's no manager that I know in the Premier League or below that I'm not consumed by it because it's just that type. You have pride, you have a work ethic and as I say you have so many things going on that you're forever trying to balance to get improvement and people manage and manage above you and try and be aligned in recruitment because good players will make you a better team. All these things come into it so I don't think it should just be casual conversation about someone's lost their job but they'll be fine I think there's a lot more to it and I think you have to respect if someone lost their job they have to go home and look at their life slightly differently. I've been in that situation. Yeah Stephen Gerald will be fine and as I say when I say he's a strong and tough bloke I say that knowing him pretty well but we're all human so who knows how he will handle that but the fact remains the same that if you lose your job then it's a difficult situation but probably in this job he's going to happen to you at least once and sometimes you'll probably come back a better manager for it in different ways or whatever, better person I don't know. So I think we shouldn't talk too casually about it, I think it's very easy to talk casually and if you mention in the payoffs or the numbers then I just think that's pretty ridiculous. Just last of all I come against Patrick Rear who I think is the only black manager in the Premier League currently and there was a report out this week that said that there was only 4% of managers who are black whereas the rate for players is 43%. I just wondered if you had any thoughts on how maybe ex-players or black players could go into management and how that statistic could improve. I don't know enough about that situation exactly other than the fact, all I know is as an ex-player finish in playing the game and then trying to get into the coaching badges and decide myself what I wanted to do and then myself put in the time to work and understand and decide that's what I wanted to do but I'm going to give it every bit of my life and to become a manager because you have to because I just touched on. And everyone should have equal opportunity to do that for sure. That's where I think we want to get to. I don't know what the details are. If you want to work hard enough, if you've been a player and so you have a good understanding again but you understand that you've got to really start again in different things that come with management, you throw yourself into it, you hope that the support is there from the FA, the PFA and all these things which I've found very good but you might look at me and say you're not part of the question that you're asking but I'm not aware of that. Then you can get an opportunity. You should get an opportunity and hopefully you go on to do very well in it. I think it should be very equal. My feeling of it has always been that it is very equal and if you work hard, you fight for an opportunity and you get an opportunity and you take it. I understand that my words might be a bit like I was fine for you but then people will disregard in the work that you do when nobody sees. It might not be a direct answer to your question but I don't want to answer the direct part if I'm not aware of what those stats and numbers and actions actually are. Thanks. Any further questions in the open section? Will? Just on Ben Gottfried, given the nature of his injury, what will be the plan for him? Will you look to play him in maybe under 21's games? Do you think he'll be back before the World Cup? I think it might be tough for him to be back before the World Cup, if I'm honest, because of the injury and because of how quickly that time has come in November 12th, we break up. So yeah, we'll look at the best plan around that and it's good for us that we've got this break because it means Ben has that time, it means Andrews Townsend has time, he's in a similar sort of situation in terms of recovery. So it's good for us in the situation of those players in particular. So yeah, maybe 21's games, extend his training and get him back if he's not ready before the break, get him back and ready for boxing though. He obviously has a few problems last season, how has he been off the pitch, sort of mentally as well-being? We do a lot of work around that with all the players, so I hope that he feels the support that he needs in that because it's a really, really frustrating period for any player to have longer-term injuries and he has, as you say, a couple at the back end of last season and he's a player that really wants to play, as they all should, but he really, really does. So he's very supported by myself and the staff and he feels and seems in a very good place. He's just come out on the pitch in the last 10 days or so and you can see his demeanor change already and that's why we do the job so hopefully he's in a good place and we're getting back in all-round good condition. I've got no idea. I've got no idea. I'm sorry. You know, he's Stephen's choice. Stephen, not say Stephen's choice, but choice of what opportunities come up that he may want to take on. So he may want to take a little bit of time now or not. I don't want to speak for him so we'll see. He's clearly got an amazing football pedigree from playing to managing at Rangers and Aston Villa, so we'll see.